


A helping hand in research

by Gamebot



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: /might/ have mature/explicit content later I'm not sure yet, F/F, Pre-Fall of Overwatch, and having a mutual dislike for eachother, but I choose to go a different route here, everyone loves Moira and Mercy as rivals, not sure if I'll be able to finish this, this will be slow sorry, woops I forgot to mention there gonna be some (maybe a lot) of angst later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2017-12-10
Packaged: 2019-02-12 12:27:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12959178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gamebot/pseuds/Gamebot
Summary: Blizzard is slow in giving us stories and information in general, so this is kind of my idea of what happened between Moira and Angela while they were working for Overwatch and Blackwatch.





	1. Chapter 1

Her expertise in the field of nanobiology was what originally peeked the interest of Overwatch and made them recruit doctor Ziegler to their organisation. Although she was hesitant to join at first, not entirely agreeing with their working ethics and militaristic approach, the oppertunity to help people on a such a large scale convinced the young doctor to join. She quickly become head of the medical research team within Overwatch and started focusing on helping their allies on the front lines, even going as far as to design the Valkyrie suit to go into battle herself. Despite having many great colleages and being good friends with a lot of other members outside of her research team, she often felt alone in her work, being the only expert in her field.

It was Gabe who told her, after Morrison replaced him as strike-commander and he was put in charge of Blackwatch, that they were getting a new scientist, one skilled in genetics. It wasn't nanobiology exactly, but the fields had some overlap. It certainly was enough for Angela to get her hopes up. The Blackwatch division itself was a rather well kept secret, not even most of the Overwatch agents themselves were told much, if anything at all. But Gabriel knew how overjoyed Angela would be to find out about their new recruit, and told her about it in confidence. 

‘Her name is Moira O'Deorain, maybe you’ve heard of her before, there was a big shitstorm about a paper she published not too long ago,’ Reyes had told her during one of their shared lunchbreaks. As expected, the doctor couldn’t have been happier to hear the news. Angela had wanted to know more but knew Reyes was already putting his job on the line by telling her about their newest member, so she decided she’d find out the details for herself later.

Angela had looked into the ‘shitstorm’ Gabriel mentioned that same afternoon. He was right, there was a big controversy surrounding the paper O’Deorain published. She wasn’t sure what to think of it, her work was brilliant, though also had the potential to be used for, well, less beneficial purposes. But looking forward to a like-minded colleage and willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, she brushed it off. Her own research wasn’t completely lacking of ethical shortfalls either, as much as she didn’t like admitting that.

The newly recruited scientist arrived only a few days later. Angela couldn’t deny she’d been looking forward to it. When Jesse walked into the breakroom for his well-deserved cup of ‘whatever passes as coffee these days’, she couldn’t contain her excitement anymore.

“Did you hear there’s a new recruit coming? Your division,” the doctor meant Blackwatch of course. It may also have been a subtle invitation for Mccree to tell her what he knows.

‘Yeah, heard she’s got quite the history,’ he humns while pushing a few buttons on the coffee-machine. A few seconds later the bitter liquid starts pouring in his cup.

“What do you mean?” Angela knows what he means, but pretends not to.

‘Well I assume you heard about that paper she published, I’d be hard not to, it’s been all the news recently,’ Jesse takes a sip from his coffee and his brows furrow in disgust, ‘this coffee gets worse every day doesn’t it. Is it too much to ask for a decent drink around here.’

Angela ignores his comment about his coffee, it’s what he tells her every break. She doesn’t really get an oppertunity to reply either way, Mccree continues his talking.

‘I dunno Angie, she sounds like trouble,’ he leans against the counter facing Angela, who laughs a little at his comment.

“That’s what they said about you when they told me there was a new recruit coming. And they weren’t wrong,” a smug grin starst growing on her face.

‘Fair enough,’ Jesse laughs, but his expression gets a little more serious a few seconds later.

‘But really, Angela, I know you’re excited for another scientist to join, I’ve heard you talk about it for as long as I can remember, but it’d be wise of you to be wary of that O’Deorain. Don’t like the looks of her, think something might be off.’

Angela frowns at his warning.

“Thanks, but I think I’ll find that out for myself.”

‘Suit yourself,’ Mcree shrugs and throws back the last of the cups content, ‘just warning ya. Do with it whatever you want.’

He gets up and tosses the cup in the thrashbin.

‘Well, I should get going, I think she could arrive any moment now, and I was supposed to be on the training-range five minutes ago. Maybe stop by her office if you want to find out what she’s like, I think she’s getting lab 42. But you didn’t hear that from me,’ Mccree gives her wink before heading for the door, ‘just look out for yourself, okay? Wouldn’t want you to become one of her lab rabbits.’

Angela rolls her eyes and waves her hand dismissively, ”Yes, thank you for your concern. Now hush, back to duty agent Mccree.”

‘Sure thing doc,’ he chuckles before closing the door behind him.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Lab 42...” the young doctor mutters to herself while walking through the corridors, searching for the right door. She doesn’t usually go to this part of the facility, it’s mostly Blackwatch’s division, and a lot of their research is withheld from her as well. A few times she’s been called to assist with their work, but even then she was largely kept in the dark.

“36, 37...” she glances through the windows to see the scientists and doctors working inside. A good chunk of the rooms are empty though, Blackwatch doesn’t have many scientists.

“39...40...41...” her footsteps halt in front of the door to room 42. Before she knocks, she quickly peeks through the glass to see if the new member has arrived already. She has, along with a fair amount of carboard boxes, which Angela assumes are full of her equipment. The red-haired woman catches the doctor looking at her through the winow. She hopes it didn’t look like she was staring at her.

The woman inside offers her a faint smile before coming to the door. The first thing Angela notices is how tall the other woman is, she needs to look up to see the other woman’s face properly. Secondly she notices the differently colored eyes, which appear to be taking in her appearence as well.

‘Ah, Doctor Ziegler, what a pleasant surprise, I didn’t expect to see you here.’

“You know who I am?” Angela is a bit taken aback by the fact that the new recruit knows who she is.

‘How could I not? You pioneered a breakthrough in applied nanobiology that radically changed the treatment of life-threatening injuries, your research has been most important to all of us. Your work is really admirable.’

“I-I’m flattered,” she manages to bring out, a blush appearing on her face.

‘But let me introduce myself, I’m Moira O’Deorain. What brings you here, Doctor Ziegler?’ it’s a genuine question out of curiousity, she must not have expected anyone to come by her workplace.

“Oh, I just wanted to stop by to introduce myself. But I see that was hardly necessary,” Angela smiles.

‘It’s certainly appreciated,’ Moira gives her a smile in return, ‘I look forward to be working with you, should we get the chance.’

“Likewise,” Angela nods. 

She looks around the mostly empty lab, inspecting the half-opened boxes. Some items are sticking out; microscopes, a few testtubes, and more complicated equipment that she can’t quite place immediatelly.

“Do you need help unpacking?” she offers, hinting at the boxes.

‘A helping hand would be very welcome,’ Moira admits before turning to the nearest box, 'if you have time?' 

"Oh, plenty of time," Angela lies. She should actually be working on another project right now, but she'll just compensate for her lack of work tomorrow.

'Is that sarcasm I detect?' Moira laughs. Angela hadn't meant to, but her reply didn't sound as credible as she wanted.

"It's okay, I'll make time," she sighs, remembering how much trouble she was already having with her research.

'Are you sure? I can also manage this by myself,' Moira offers.

"No no! It's fine, really. Let's just get started, shall we?"

\-----------------------------------------------------------

Installing everything by herself would’ve taken all day, at least. With Angela’s help they’re in the breakroom sharing a cup of coffee in no time.

‘You have my thanks, if it weren’t for you I would’ve spend the entire day in that dusty lab. You truly are Overwatch’s guardian angel,’ Moira partially hides her grin behind her cup, taking a sip from the still boiling hot beverage. 

Angela laughs at the remark, trying to hide the soft red that begins to color her face again.

“Oh please, I couldn’t let you unbox an entire lab worth of equipment by yourself. Besides, it wouldn’t have made for a very good first day, would it?”

‘It wouldn’t, no,’ Moira chuckles.

“If I may ask, what is it that made you join anyway?”

The woman frowns slightly at the question and takes another sip of her drink.

‘Well,’ she begins, appearing somewhat hesitant, ‘when I published my paper on genetic engineering, it was met with a lot of backlash, as you might’ve heard. After that, it became impossible for me to find anyone willing to fund my research again, untill Overwatch came along. I couldn’t possibly refuse such an opportunity.’

She takes another swig.

Angela considers her words for a moment, looking down at her own cup and swirling the dark liquid around.

“It’s a shame your paper was met with such criticism,” she turns to face Moira, who looks up from her now emtpy cup as well, “but I’m glad you decided to join us, I hope we can offer you a better chance here.”

‘I hope so too,’ Moira gives her a weary smile, appearing somewhat tired. Angela blames her long journey to the headquarters.

“Hey, how about I show you around? You must be tired from your trip here, I can show you where the dorms are so you can get some rest.”

Moira nods, ‘That’d be appreciated, thank you.’


	2. Chapter 2

The next day Angela has to work hard to catch up to all the work she didn’t get done day before. It’s her own fault, she left early in afternoon to meet a certain someone and help her unpack. But deadlines need to be met, so she makes the decission to work a little overtime tonight. Though in Angela’s world, ‘a little’ means staying in the lab well after 10 pm, while all of her colleagues have already gone to their room to get a decent night’s rest. Now she’s sitting in her office, leaning over her papers and downing what feels like the twentieth cup of coffee. It’s not starting to taste better. She recalls Mccree’s usual complaint during their lunchbreak and starts to think he may have had a point. Her mind starts wandering towards a breakroom with a better coffee-machine. Maybe a bigger fridge too. Perhaps she could use some of her research funds to upgrade the room...

_Focus! This needs to be finished next week, and progress has already been slow. I just need to fix this problem with the cell regeneration so we can start working on improving the Caduceus Staff..._

The Caduceus Staff was still a work in progress. It did it's job, sure, but not as well as she’d hoped. The healing beam isn’t stimulating the cells to regenerate as fast as Angela wanted, but she can’t figure out why.

The words and numbers stop making sense and dance over the pages, forming an incomprehensible mess. Angela shakes her head in an attempt to wake herself up, but it’s no use.

“I should just go to bed, there’s no point in staring at this if I can’t even read it...” she mumbles to herself. 

In the reflection of the window she catches a glimps of a figure, standing in the doorway behind her. Quickly she turns around, only to find it’s Moira. She let out a sigh of relief.

“Mein Gott, you scared me,” Angela laughs, “for a second I thought you were an intruder.”

‘It’s just me,’ Moira chuckles.

“But what are you doing here? And at this time,” Angela checks the clock on the wall to find it’s past midnight already, both of them didn’t really have any business being up at this hour.

‘I was outside and saw the lights were on in your lab, I figured you were still working,’ she let’s herself in and walks over to the desk where multiple pages are sprawled over the surface, ‘thought you might need to some help.’

“I just need to fix this problem with the Caduceus Staff, I can’t figure out what’s wrong with the current healing beam. The cell regeneration has been a lot slower than we expected, and...” she sighs and buries her head in her arms on the desk, “I just need to get this done...”

A comforting hand brushes over her shoulder, anothers over the research papers.

‘Looks like someone could use a hand,’ she hears Moira pick up some of the pages, ‘do you mind if I take a look at this tomorrow? Maybe I can offer some insight.’

Angela lifts her head from the desk to look at woman inspecting her work, her eyes almost sparkling at the suggestion.

“I don’t mind at all. Let me get you some copies, just a minute.” 

She turns to her laptop that has been working overtime as well. The documents Angela had been working on are still displayed on the screen, and with the press of a button the pages start rolling out of the printer. It’s quite the volume, and takes the machine some time to print. Angela hands the still warm papers to her colleague, ready to leave the lab and finally head to bed.

“Here you go,” she yawns, “maybe you can make something out of it.”

‘Much obliged,’ Moira answers, a hint of excitement in her voice.

“Now if you don’t mind, I think I’m going to research the effects of a good night’s rest on the human body.”

‘Let me know your findings, Doctor Ziegler,’ Moira replies with a laugh.

Angela nods slowy, feeling absolutely exhausted.

“Will do.”

She turns the lights off in the lab and closes the door behind the two of them. Because Blackwatch’s dorms are on the other side of the facility, they wish eachother a good evening and go their seperate ways for the night.

\-------------------------------------------------------------

Most of the day passes without a sign of O’Deorain, Angela hadn’t heard anything from her after she had given her a copy of her work. Not that she expected her to fix her entire paper overnight, that wouldn’t be reasonable, but she was interested to hear what the other woman had to say about it. Secretly she may also secretly be curious about Moira’s own research. Near the end of her shift she decides to stop by the other lab again. 

Moira's working in her lab, although not on Angela's papers, instead she appears to be busy with a more practical experiment. The sight of the rabbit on the table combined with the equipment around it makes Angela nervous. She couldn’t deny that the tests were crucial for the succes of their research, still, she didn’t like it and avoided those tests where she could. 

Angela knocks on the door, hoping she isn’t interrupting something too important. It seems she hasn’t, Moira opens the door for her and greets her cheerfully.

‘Doctor Ziegler, back so soon? I haven’t had the chance to take a closer look at your paper yet, if that’s what you came here for. I still have my own projects to work on I’m afraid. If you can give me another day I will return the work with my notes.’

“Of course, take all the time you need. That’s not what I came here for anyway,” Angela reassures her.

‘Oh? What brings you here then?’ Moira raises an eyebrow, not sure what other business the doctor would have in this department other than ask for her research back.

“I...” Angela finds herself at a loss for words.

‘Don’t tell me you came all the way to the other end of this base just to see me,’ Moira teases. It works better than she expected, the young doctor’s face turns a bright red in mere seconds.

“N-No!” Angela crosses her arms, “it’s just, eh, as Overwatch’s head of medical research, I need to keep an eye on your work. For safety reasons.”

‘Do you now?’ Moira asks with a smirk, ‘I thought Blackwatch wasn’t part of your division.’

She was right of course, but Angela refuses to admit it.

“If it’s medical research it’s my division,” Angela retains.

She turns to the rabbit on the table. 

“So tell me, what are you doing to that poor animal?”

Angela can’t tell if the other woman is buying her lie, but it doesn’t seem to matter anyway as Moira is more than willing to tell her about her work.

‘Little Birgit here? She’s part of my research on DNA alteration.’

Moira walks over to the bunny, a silent invitation for Angela to follow her. Upon closer inspection Angela notices the cords plugged into the animal, it unknowingly makes her wrinkle her nose a little.

‘She has a genetic affliction which complicates her movements, her hind legs specifically. I’ve been working on a method to change her genetic code, to take out the parts that cause her problems,’ she notices Angela staring at the cords with a dissaproving look.

‘Don’t worry about these,’ Moira takes one of the cords in her hand, ‘they’re just for monitoring. Pulse, blood pressure, respiration, it’s to make sure she’s doing alright.’

Angela’s face immediatelly turns more optimistic.

“Oh thank god,” she sighs in relief, “for a second I thought you were pumping her full of some medicine."

‘Absolutely not. I’ll have you know that I take excellent care of my little angels,’ Moira gently pets the animal on the table. It appears to be calm, despite it’s somewhat worrying circumstances. Even with the best intentions, it’s still an experiment.

“Well I’m glad to hear that,” Angela also lets one of her hands brush over the soft fur of the animal. It curiously sniffs her hand, not recognizing the smell.

‘Then, I take it you’re satisfied? Now that you know what I’m plotting in my lab,’ Moira asks a bit cheekily.

“I uhm...” Angela looks for an excuse to stay longer, “actually, I think I may need to observe a bit more of your work. Why don’t you continue with your experiment?”

‘Oh?’ the smug grin doesn’t disappear for a second, ‘if you say so Doctor Ziegler. Ever the watchful guardian-angel.’

Angela doesn’t reply to her comment. She takes the chair from Moira’s desk and sits down, then motions for her to go on with her work. Moira returns to the little Birgit still patiently waiting on the table. She looks at her monitors for a minute before getting back to the more practical part of her research; with a syringe she draws some blood from the animal, to anylize later. It’s placed in a device that keeps it from clotting. 

Angela watches the whole process. She doesn’t notice her attention being drawn away by other things; Moira’s hands gracefully dancing over her equipment, sometimes moving up to adjust a loose srand of hair, and her focussed eyes, appearing almost cold now that she’s so lost in her work. Those distractions are what make her lose track of time too. Her colleague has to snap her out of it.

‘Doctor Ziegler?’ Moira asks, slightly cocking her head to the side, ‘Doctor Ziegler? Are you awake?’

“Hmm?” Angela shakes her head vigorously, “wha- of course I’m awake.”

‘You looked like you were some place else entirely,’ she laughs, ‘perhaps in the breakroom already? It’s the end of my shift so I’m heading there right now. You’re free to stay of course, should you want to have a closer look at my lab.’

Angela gives her a confused look, having completely forgotten about her made-up reason for dropping by. 

‘For your safety inspection,’ Moira reminds her.

“Oh, right, my inspection,” she repeats and looks around the room, “I-uh, think everything looks alright. But it’s the end of my shift as well, so I’ll have to look at the rest of the lab tomorrow.”

‘As you wish. Would you then maybe join me for another cup of coffee?’

“Gladly, I could certainly use a some,” Angela bolts from the chair, following her colleague to the breakroom.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

‘Ugh, Jesse's right, this coffee gets worse every day,’ Angela shakes her head, ‘we really need a better coffee-machine. Remind me to take you to the city for a decent drink some time.’

“Well it’s drinkable,” Moira shrugs, “though I’d heartily take your invitation, when you have time.”

‘Time... that’s something I don’t have a lot,’ she groans, ‘not right now anyway, I still need to finish the work on the Cadeucus Staff...’

“Oh, I almost forgot, I was going to have a look at your research today. I left it in the lab, I’ll pick it up in a minute.”

‘I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out,’ Angela confesses.

“Don’t mention it,” Moira laughs before getting up, “the evening’s still young, I should get to it before I start pulling all-nighters like a certain other scientist.”

Angela sticks out her tongue at the remark.

‘Don’t let me catch you at work after ten,’ she teases, ‘can’t let fatigue influence your research.’

“Same to you, Doctor Ziegler,” Moira smiles before heading back to her working station.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More lab visits and complaining about coffee, overused idea but I cant help myself.
> 
> Prepare for (minor) angst to start in the next chapter, I think?

**Author's Note:**

> Life's too short to let fics rot on my laptop so I'm just gonna start uploading stuff even if I'm not sure where I want this to go right now
> 
> If anyone was expecting me to write more Splatoon I'm sorry oops
> 
> Just gonna repeat this here; I don't know what the end of this will be, if I'm going to write one at all. If any of you readers have ideas, be sure to let me know!


End file.
